fandom angsting and moaning

[lettered]

I also posted The Eighth Tale on AO3 herePeople say I suck at summaries, so I probably didn't adequately explain that fic. It deals with timey-wimey and time paradoxes, possible futures that might also be possible fanfics, Harry/Draco sex, and then a sad ending. The fic was actually the summary of a fic that I'm not actually going to write, so I

Comments

[deedlit50]

I feel like the window where people might read your fic is usually gone in about 3 days, unless it gets linked elsewhere, and what if in that time, not many people read it? Did that mean it was no good, you just posted at the wrong time, a catastrophe was happening, your header sucked, people just don't know your name, or what?

I don't know if this is a common problem but as a reader I sometimes feel like writers underestimate the importance of summaries. I should probably spend some time brainstorming about what exactly I look for in a summary and why certain ones stand out for me above others. That being said though, summaries are totally what convince me to read or not read a fic. Half the time I don't even bother reading the title or author name when I'm skimming communities or AO3

[lettered]

It's hard to know what people look for in summaries, though. I like summaries that say exactly what the fic is. "Sam and Dean get amnesia. Then they fuck." You know? Most people would think that was a crappy summary, and you know, sometimes it's way better if the amnesia (or whatever) is a surprise. And yet, those are the summaries I look for. What do you look for in a summary?

larger fandoms like HP and SPN suffer from having too many options

Yup, definitely. I have no idea how to say my Sam+Dean gen brotherfic is different than a thousand other fics like it. And maybe it's not, and yet of course I think it is. How is anyone else to know?

It's a complex issue for sure!

Hahaha yeah. Obviously this is true irl as well--how do movie stars become movie stars? It's just weird.